January

Our January was fairly uneventful. We are trying to save some money, and de-stress our lives a little as well. Sometimes play dates can cause a lot of stress. Fighting amoungst the kids is the main reason for the stress, although just noise and busy-ness can also cause stress especially when at this point it is far less stressful hanging out at home. Ryan is great at playing independently so I can clean the house, exercise, organize my life, and get important things crossed off my to-do list while he plays on his own. And of course, I enjoy spending time with him as well. We have lots of toys and activities to keep us busy and sometimes a mommy & Ryan day all by ourselves can be just as much if not more fun than any day we spend with our friends. For example in mid-January Ryan and I took a trip to the Kitchener Childrens Museum all by ourselves. Ryan loves this place, and I love taking him. We played with the water table, made silly faces into the pin board, made words and alphabets (both lower and upper case of course) on their magnetic board, built forts with huge blocks, imagined we were at the beach building sandcastles in totspot, ran an obstacle course in totspot, and checked every inch of the museum out. This is what memories are made of, and when you are with other friends it is easier to focus more on adult conversations than paying attention to and playing with your child.

We also had some play dates and visited a few indoor play grounds. We visited FunZone for the first time ($5) and it was very big and Ryan had so much fun running around, bouncing in the bouncy castles, sliding on the slides, climbing the jungle gym, and playing imagination games. We also visited Mighty Jungle again one afternoon (bought a multiple entry card for this place for an amazing deal through groupon a few months ago). Our two more expensive outings were chuckie cheese for one of Ryans best friends birthday and Skyzone trampoline park the week after. Chuckie cheese was all about the kids. There was no time for chatting as the kids were focused on playing one game after the other. I had not been to chuckie cheese in over a year and it was quite different this time. Not only did the venue change its layout, taking away the toddler slide that Ryan loved last time, but this time Ryan was more interested in playing the actual games, and not just the rides and slide. One of their favourite things was a roller coaster simulator which vibrates and makes you feel like you may be on a roller coaster. They went on at least 10 times if not 20. Skyzone was awesome! It is a giant auditorium filled with trampolines. Not only did Ryan get his exercise and fun jumping on these trampolines for an hour, but so did mommy! It was quite a workout and I had to take breaks from jumping and felt it in my legs the following day. But it was so much fun. I do not know when the last time was that I jumped on a trampoline! Ryan also jumped from the trampolines into the foam pit. The only thing I did not enjoy was the presence of another little boy who must have been about a year younger than Ryan who kept following Ryan onto his trampoline and almost caused a few accidents. His mother did not care what he did.

We also visited the Brittany Glen early years center once, had a numbers play date at our home (kids made number snakes), a pray and play session twice at our home, and a few private play dates with just our best friends.